


Toni and Phil: Would You Date Me?

by Kingley98



Series: Toni Stark and Phil Coulson through the years [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Awesome James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Awesome Phil Coulson, Best Friends, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Phil Coulson, Teenage Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Young Phil Coulson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 19:53:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19752694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingley98/pseuds/Kingley98
Summary: When an innocent afternoon watching and criticizing and debating the theoretical accuracy of Star Trek with Rhodey turns into a discussion about dating, Phil would rather be anywhere in the universe that wasn't Toni Stark's pillow. But escaping this conversation was never an option. Especially since what Toni Stark wants, Toni Stark generally gets.And what Toni wants, is Phil.





	Toni and Phil: Would You Date Me?

**Author's Note:**

> Much love on all the positive feedback from my first attempt at this type of fanfiction. I really appreciate it. I really hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.

Phil had no idea what the hell was happening.

One minute he was sitting comfortably on the massive lounge in Toni’s living room watching Star Trek on the TV with Toni laying almost uncomfortably across him and Rhodey was laying on the other available lounge. He was listening to both of them get into a heated debate on the technical and theoretical physics required to create an actual space ship and Toni was calling bullshit rather loudly when some of the physics were off. The next minute he was staring dumbfounded at Toni not understanding the question she’d just randomly thrown his way in the middle of her debate with Rhodes while said man just started pissing himself laughing.

He liked Rhodes, he really did. Since they were the same age and both five years older than Toni was they had a lot in common. They had a shared love of the military and the uniform they had both worn proudly at one time and of course they both had a shared love of the woman currently in his arms. Both he and Rhodes had bonded immediately over their shared love and protectiveness of the genius who had slowly taken a turn towards destructive and reckless behaviour in the last 18 months and the last 12 that he had known her, drinking and being drunk near every day or if she wasn’t drunk she was high on one type of illicit narcotic or another.

There had been a close call a few months back. Both he and Rhodes had been deployed and stationed overseas at the time and Toni had spiraled down into a new all-time low. Working long hours in the R&D Department of Stark Industries then partying it up every night and taking home random people, both male and female companions. Rarely getting any sleep for days at a time. Trying to combat the media’s constant presence in her life, but having no idea where to start and at every turn managing to make the wrong decision and end up further in the shit than when she’d started. And quite honestly he was surprised she’d managed to stay afloat as long as she had before she’d crashed and burned and just about killed herself in the process.

Whether it was intentional or accidental, neither he nor Rhodes ever found out. But that close encounter did reinforce his decision to leave the military behind when his contract was up at the end of his deployment. It wasn’t quite the wake-up call he and Rhodey had expected it to be to rattle her into getting into a program and getting clean and sober, but she did slow down a bit. She still partied, she still drank and she still took whatever drugs she chose, but it wasn’t every night anymore. And since his retirement from the Army, Toni had started going home with less and less random strangers than before. And if he was honest with himself he hadn’t seen Toni with anyone in the last two months.

“Wh-What…?” He stuttered out around his truly gob smacked expression. His brain wasn’t processing the information he was hearing and he could have sworn he had misheard Toni ask him if he would date her.

“I asked. Would you date me?”

Nope. No he hadn’t. His brain processing power was still at optimal functionality it would seem.

“Uh…. Where did that come from?”

“So that’s a no then?”

“No.”

“So is that a yes then?.”

“No.”

“Oh…”

“No it’s not a ‘No’ no, and it’s not a ‘yes’, it’s just…. I was wondering why you brought it up.” Rhodey was still pissing himself laughing but he couldn’t divert any of his processing power to understand what Rhodes was doing over on the other lounge. He needed all his wits about him while he faced the brunette bombshell that was still spread-eagle over him.

“Well I was talking with my Honey Bear the other day about his little infatuation with one of his superior officers….” Rhodey stopped laughing and made what Phil thought was a squawking sound at Toni’s words, but the genius just kept talking as if he hadn’t made a single sound. “And it got me thinking about relationships. And it just randomly popped into my head that you let me lounge all over you when you’re here. In the last few months we’ve started sleeping in the same bed most nights when you’re here and we always hang out together whenever we’re both not busy. I mean, really if you think about it, with like obscure glasses or you squint at it with your head tilted at like a 45 degree angle….”

“Toni get to the point.”

“Well we kinda already act like we’re in a relationship.” Toni murmured and he had to move himself back a tiny bit to get a better look at her. “So I was curious to know if you would date me? I mean, I know we’re friends and that is totally fine if you don’t wanna date me. Hell I wouldn’t wanna date me if I were you. I mean, all the ‘daddy issues’, the media, me being so much younger than you…”

“Toni.”

“… You being a super-secret spy now and working for a super-secret spy organization, which now I’ve said it out loud, we totally couldn’t date because the media would ruin all your undercover work….”

“Toni.”

“…. So I take that back. Just forget….”

“Toni! Stop talking.”

If he was being honest with himself, the thought of dating Toni Stark didn’t scare him as much as that thought would have a few years ago, hell even a few months ago. It had been constantly on his mind since he’d retired from the Army. It was just little thoughts here and there that would pop up in his head whenever he was with Toni. And over the last 12 months since their initial meeting at the airport and Toni flying him home to Portland, and Toni basically adopting him as one of her closest friends outside of James Rhodes, he’d grown extremely fond of the genius and all her generosity that she reserves only for her friends, which are her family. 

So the thought of being together with Toni wasn’t a new one to him. And if he truly wanted to analyze everything about Toni’s words, he could see exactly where her train of thought was coming from. Since his retirement from the Army and the few weeks he’d already put into working at SHIELD he was around more often. They hung out whenever he wasn’t working and training and she wasn’t required to be in R&D meetings and designing new weapons for her company under the demanding hand of Obadiah Stane.

Since he’d made the move to LA after he’d retired from active duty, and with the help of a rather insistent Toni, they had a standing movie night appointment every Thursday night that they both tried their hardest to be at. He crashed in her bed whenever he was too tired to drive home, even though he had a designated room in Toni’s house, that bed had only ever been used once and Toni had ended up cuddled into his side anyway. So in a way he could understand why Toni’s words made perfect sense to her. If he looked at it objectively like an outsider looking in, they already slept in the same bed most of the time, they did things together that couples did, they hung out together, they just about lived together. And Toni had a decent point, they did everything that couples in monogamous relationships do, except they weren’t dating each other. And they also didn’t kiss or have sex with each other.

“I can see what you’re saying and it definitely has merit, but I just gotta ask, why are you thinking about this? And now?”

“Blame Rhodey.”

“Me! What?! What do I have to do with this?” Rhodes spluttered and sat up indignantly. Phil couldn’t help but smirk at the ruffled pilot and he had a distinct feeling that was the exact reaction Toni was hoping to elicit from the man, especially from the way she was downright giggling in his arms.

“It’s your fault for whining at me about how infatuated you are with your CO. You put the idea of relationships in my head. You planted the seeds with your little mind games about how awesome relationships are, and it bared fruit in my over zealous mind and now I’m running with it. So it’s all Rhodey’s fault.”

“I was not whining about my CO….”

“… ‘Toni you have to understand, she’s absolutely perfect. She’s a complete drill sergeant and she doesn’t put up with any shit, but she’s also kind and funny. She has an amazing sense of humour and the way she can handle an F18…’.” Toni did a poor impersonation of Rhodes that had him cracking up and Toni cracking a bright smile.

“Alright, alright, alright…. I get the picture. I talk about my CO too much. So what? Deal with it.”

“Ok. So I get that Rhodes has been infatuated with his CO and making a fool of himself, it seems. And that it’s got you thinking about relationships. But why me? I’m flattered, don’t get me wrong, I am. But you do all the same things you said you do with me; with Rhodes over there and yet I don’t see you asking him to date you.” He pointed over to Rhodes who had completely sobered up and was shooting him a glare while Toni was silent.

“Ew, no. That’s my sister man. Come on dude, that’s just wrong on so many levels I don’t even know where to start. Why did you have to go there with that? Why’d you have to go and make this weird? Besides I wasn’t the one who was being a little bitch about his feelings, drinking them away in a bottle of Jack and I certainly wasn’t the guy who decked that guy that was trying to get his tongue down Tone’s throat at the club the other week…. Jealous much?” Rhodes teased him and he felt the light traces of heat rise up the sides of his neck and the tips of his ears as Rhodey pointed out his jealous and possessive behaviour from the other week.

“That guy was at least 30-years-old trying to get his hands down a 19-year-old girls pants who was completely trashed and could barely stand up straight. You’re just mad I got my licks in before you could get a hand on the guy. And I told you that in confidence not so you could turn around and blackmail me with it.”

“You two gossip about me behind my back? Are you two gossip buddies now? Is it like a high tea type situation? Go out and get scones and act all fancy while you talk about all my lovely qualities?”

Both he and Rhodes scoffed at Toni’s dramatics, and he rubbed his hand down the length of her arm as she stretched out across him for flare, while she was trying to make her point about him and Rhodes.

“Of course we are. And it’s coffee and donuts on a Sunday morning whenever we’re both not busy.”

“That’s just rude. I love coffee and donuts.”

“We know.” Both he and Rhodes answered together with shit-eating grins on their faces while he laughed at Toni’s loud and obnoxious groan of protest.

“That’s just cruel. Your both supposed to love me. I demand a refund. Defective goods.”

“I don’t know about defective goods. Mine works just fine.” He deadpanned and silenced both Toni and Rhodey. And for a good 10 seconds they all sat in a complete silence before both Rhodes and Toni burst out laughing.

“Oh God! Did our conservative and up-tight agent really just pop a crude joke?” Toni squealed in total delight and wiggled around on his lap trying to get into a more comfortable position, while still attempting to stay 90% draped over his lap.

“I think he did.”

“I did.”

++++

“You know you never did answer me before.” He turned over to look at Toni and for a moment his breath caught in his throat when he got a look at Toni with the moonlight hitting her face at just the right angle to cast a beautiful glow over her features but also cloaking her enough to create a sultry and goddess-like picture. In the moonlight Toni truly did look like an unstoppable goddess of not just life and creation but also destruction.

“Because it’s not a simple answer.” He whispered back to her. And how he wished it was just as simple as saying ‘yes’ to dating her. Toni sat up abruptly and the sheets covering her fell to her waist and t-shirt from Basic slipped off her shoulder and revealed her slim and delicate features. Her hair was a mess of waves and curls that fell framing her face and draped over her shoulders. A true goddess moment.

“Why isn’t it?”

“Because…”

“That’s very original. If you don’t want to date me just say so. I’m a big girl. I can take rejection. It won’t be the first time….”

“That’s not… Toni that’s not what I was saying. What your asking, it’s not as simple as saying ‘yes, let’s date’….”

“And why not? We like each other. We basically act like a couple, even Rhodey agrees that we act like we’re dating. You sleep here more than you sleep at your apartment. We always hang out. Why isn’t it as simple as saying ‘yes’.” Toni wrapped her hands around his neck, her hands moving to run through the hair at the nape of his neck and over the defining lines of his jawline. Her hands moved over his skin leaving a trail of fire in her wake.

“Because it’s you!” He didn’t mean for the words to slip out but his brain to mouth filter was not working. And he certainly didn’t intend to shout the words in her face. But he couldn’t take them back. Toni wrenched her hands back almost as if she’d been burned by touching him and looking into her eyes he could see her trying to swallow down the hurt as quickly as it came up, but her eyes welled with water but he could see she was trying like hell from letting the tears fall down her face and letting him see her cry. To show any vulnerability in his presence.

“No, Toni that… That wasn’t what I meant. It’s not you….”

“God, how original. The whole ‘It’s not you it’s me ’ speech. Please just save us both some time. I’ve heard it all before. Didn’t much like hearing it the first time, certainly don’t need to hear it a second or even a third….”

“That’s not… It is you. But it’s not you.”

“Phil just spit it out already and leave. Because contrary to what everyone else believes, I’m not a mind reader.” He took a deep breath and clasped Toni’s hands tightly in his own and when she tried to take them back he held on tighter.

“It’s not a simple answer, Toni, no matter how simple the question might be. Our lives Toni, our lives are so different. And I know, I know you can’t help who you are. Your family name. This is nothing against you Toni. Absolutely nothing. And the work I’m doing now. Going undercover and doing such a high risk job where lives are on the line, I could never ask that of you. To be willing to be made a target because of me. To be in danger because of me. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you because of me. This is nothing against you, your lifestyle. All the glitz and the glamour, I don’t care about that stuff. I would willingly sacrifice everything to be what you needed, to lose all measures of privacy, but not while I’m working with SHIELD. I can’t be selfish and have both you and the job, no matter how much I want both.”

“But you’re not asking me. You’re taking that choice away from me…”

“This is your life we’re talking about right now…”

“Exactly! It’s my life. Not yours. Not Rhodey’s. Mine. And no one gets to tell me what I feel, or what I can and can’t risk. That’s my decision to make, and only mine.” They looked intensely into each other’s eyes and he could see the clear determination in Toni’s eyes. She wasn’t about to back down from this. “Look, Phil, I get it. You’re trying to protect me from something that hasn’t even happened. But you’re not protecting me, you’re protecting yourself from getting hurt. And look I get that. You’re protecting what’s left of your heart, you can’t lose anymore. But don’t lie to me and say it’s to protect me, you’re protecting yourself and that’s fine too.”

“Toni, I…”

“Phil, it’s alright. If there’s one thing I can understand better than anyone it’s the need to protect yourself from getting hurt by running away. It’s what I do best. It’s one of the first things you learn in this life. That you’re all alone and no one’s coming to save you, so you have to protect what you can with what you have. But just so you know, this hypothetical risk that your thinking about, the fear that’s stopping you from dating me, that’s on you. Not me. I think we’re worth that risk. I think you’re worth that risk. Goodnight Phil.”

When Toni laid back down and faced the window, he watched her curl up into a ball as tight as she could get. But he couldn’t move. He couldn’t bring himself to get up from the comfort of Toni’s bed and leave her to her own thoughts. Subconsciously he knew she was right. That the fear of her getting hurt because of him was on him, not her. While it had to do with her, he was the one that was being cautious with her safety, ending it before it had even begun. Protecting himself from getting hurt. Protecting himself from something that might not even happen.

He looked down at her and watched the moonlight dance rhythmically across her olive skin. It was all he could do. He was memorizing the beautiful picture Toni was creating with her body in the pale light of the night, he was committing it to memory.

“Ok.” He whispered.

Toni rolled over to look up at him. He laid back down under the covers and faced her. He reached out and wrapped her hands up tight in his grip and pulled it closer to rest snuggled against his chest. Close to his heart.

“Ok?”

“Ok, you’re worth the risk. You’re worth every risk.”

They both leaned in together and met in the middle. Their lips came together, it wasn’t quite a searing kiss, but it still conveyed every feeling and emotion he needed to express that he couldn’t say with words. It expressed all his insecurities and hesitance’s, his hope, his wonder, his joy, his commitment. His everything. He released one of his hands from Toni’s and reached up to cup her face, running his thumb against the delicate features of her cheekbone, tracing the hollow of her cheek and skimming down over her jawline.  
He pulled back to study her features. Studied the beauty of her chocolate and whiskey flecked eyes in the pale moonlight. It was enchanting and breathtaking. And all the more youthful and stress-free when she smiled like she was right then.

“Ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi my Lovelies!!!!!
> 
> What did we all think? I took some of the feedback I received on my first post about Toni being too 'tame' for a teenager who basically just lost her parents. So I've tried to imply as best I can that Toni really did spiral quite a far way down the rabbit hole this time, and that she hasn't quite hit rock bottom yet.
> 
> What did you think of how I played Phil in this one? I feel like there's a lot of subtext and subconscious hesitation on his part that had nothing to do with Toni being a Stark or fearing for her safety because of his job. I sort of left that open to interpretation that maybe it was her, her lifestyle, her partying ways, the drugs and alcohol. While I did go down the avenue of work being the issue, I feel that as someone as square cut as Coulson is, I feel that maybe the drugs and alcohol and constant partying might become a problem for him in the future. We shall see.
> 
> Please remember this is a safe space, all comments and feedback are warmly received and always appreciated and as always this is a negativity free flight. Haters will be left behind and ignored. Feel free to leave me your opinions.


End file.
